


Rolling With the Punches

by matimae



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Love, Diabetes, Diabetic Diego Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Don't worry, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, JUST brotherly, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Passing Out, T1D, Whump, adoptive siblings are still siblings, ambulance, diabetic whump, diego hargreeves can't communicate, dka, hyperglycemia, more whump to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-12 02:02:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matimae/pseuds/matimae
Summary: Nothing will stop Diego from finding Hazel and Cha Cha. Well, nothing short of passing out.





	1. I'm Fine

**Author's Note:**

> This a basically an AU starting in the middle of episode 5, where I hurt Diego.

This stupid apocalypse. This stupid headache. This stupid car.

Diego slammed his hands into his steering wheel again, it gave him relief from his anger.

Momentarily.

It was knocking on the second hour of Klaus’s and his stakeout for Hazel and Cha Cha, no sign of either of them.  
Diego’s knee bounced up in down in the small space of his front seat, soon his fingers were twitching and then he couldn’t take it.

“Again?” mumbled Klaus, who was for the most part out of it, but still aware that his brother had taken 3 trips to the bathroom in the short time they’d been sitting in the parking lot.

“Shut up,” Diego shot back before angrily opening the door and entering Griddy’s Doughnut shop.

He sighed as he made his way to the marked bathroom, a dried blood stain on the doorway. Half of Diego couldn't believe that it was open so soon after the massacre here, but then again this doughnut loving community would always keep this place running.

Diego silently cursed himself for his stupid bladder. In truth he had no idea why he had to go to the bathroom so much recently, I mean he had been drinking a lot more, but he always used to have it under control. It was a hassle. For all he knew, Hazel and Cha Cha could have come and gone when he was busy in here.

Diego finished up and started to the exit before he stopped in his tracks. After a moment’s consideration, he stopped and bought bottled water.

In the car Klaus gave him a look, “No wonder you have to pee all the time, you’re personally drinking away all the little fishies’ homes,” Klaus chuckled to himself, taking another swig of his bottle.

“Just...” Diego didn’t finish his sentence.

He was too exhausted to get into it with his brother. The bottle of water was downed in an instant, yet it still didn’t quench his thirst. He couldn’t decide what was more annoying, his dry mouth or his constant headache. But none of it mattered. Patch’s killers were still out there somewhere. The thought of them, roaming around the earth, after what they did to Klaus and Eudora, it was enough to make his blood boil. But the exhaustion was relentless. Why was he so tired? How can he even think about sleeping what they were out there still? But that’s all he could think about. As he stared at the entrance to Griddy’s his eyelids grew heavier. He had to get his mind off of his exhaustion.

“Klaus, I, uh, I’m sorry that I didn’t come for you earlier.”

“Whatever. You had to find Five. End of the world and all that. My life versus the world, no comparison I know.” Klaus dug his face deeper into the window, he didn’t even hardly register what he was saying, his thoughts somewhere else entirely, some _time_ else entirely.

“No, Klaus, I should’ve been there for you. I should have been there for Patch.”

“Sorry about your cop friend,”

Diego swallowed. “Yeah.” He looked at Klaus through his rearview mirror. “That’s why we have to make them pay. For everything they’ve done.”

With that Diego fell back into silence, thoughts of Eudora couldn’t stop flashing in his mind. Her smiling, her breathing, alive, happy. Then her lying lifeless on the ground, so still. So still. Diego squeezed his eyes shut and shook the image out of his head. Nausea was coming to him again, he had been nauseous for a while now when exactly it started he couldn’t pinpoint, but with everything he’s had to deal with lately, it wasn’t too surprising.

“You sure this is the place?” Klaus asked after a while of silence.

“This is our only lead. There was a receipt for this place, and it looks like they’re...uh.. frequent users.” Diego’s voice was trailing off, for no reason in particular just that he hadn’t the energy to finish.

In fact, it was getting exhausting just to think. And there it was. The tightness in his bladder. Diego looked up pleadingly. Again? He thought. Something was definitely off with him recently. He put a lot of effort even just reaching for the door handle, by now he was twice as slow as just a half hour ago getting out of his car. He tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, but his fumbling limbs just drew attention.

“You okay there?” Klaus’s words surprised Diego, he shook his head in response. 

“Fine,” Diego clutched the door of the car to catch his breath from standing up too fast. Something was wrong.

“I’m fine,” he repeated, mostly to himself.

Shutting the car door Diego took a few steps towards the shop before his vision started to blur. He swayed in place, trying to recompose himself. Klaus’s brow furrowed from the car as he observed his brother. Diego continued to sway for a moment before his knees buckled beneath him and he tumbled to the ground, Diego knew he should catch himself, but his movements were no longer his own. He just let the darkness cover him, giving into the longing for rest he so deeply desired.

“Di-Diego!” Klaus fumbled with his door throwing himself out of the car, his wine bottle falling from his lap onto the cement.

“No, no, no, Diego,” Klaus’s chest rose and fell with anxiety as he came to his unconscious brother. Flashes of Dave flooded Klaus’s mind as he saw his brother lying on the ground in a similar position.

“Diego,” he said while shaking his brother's shoulders.

“Diego, wake up!” by now Klaus couldn’t contain his panic attack as he held his brother.

Klaus’s mind was lead. Nothing was registering and he didn’t know what to do. Why was it everyone he loved always ended up this way? Why could he never save them?

“Help,” Klaus managed to find the words, they fell flat in his mouth, no force to them. 

“Help!” he said raising his voice, frantically scouring the lot, no one was there. Klaus began to pat down Diego’s pockets, he _had_ to have a phone here somewhere. Not just knives. Right? Klaus's hands found the smooth case of a flip phone in his pant pockets, in another time he might've made fun of his brother for being behind the times, but all he was was grateful that he had something. With shaking hands, he dialed the 3 little numbers that had been called on him so many times.

“Yes, I, I, my brother, he collapsed, please I need a medic. A medic!” A tear ran down Klaus’ face as memories of the battlefield fought for his attention, bad memories. “Yeah, uh, Griddy’s doughnut,” Klaus set down the phone, they were on their way, but right now Diego needed help.

Gingerly Klaus put two nimble fingers to Diego’s neck and released a breath as he felt a pulse. He was still alive.

“Diego, you have to stay here. You can’t leave me. Leave us. You can’t leave this world. Earth needs it’s broody and bitter protector. Okay?”

There was no reply from Diego, which while disappointing, was not surprising. Klaus started to remove the knives from Diego’s suit, his brother would thank him later, Klaus knew all about losing things due to an impromptu visit to the hospital.

The hospital.

Klaus was never a fan. But he’d stick with Diego, 'cause he would do the same for him. The wail of sirens greeted Klaus and for the first time Klaus was relieved to hear them, normally for him, sirens either meant he overdosed or was being arrested, but now they were his savior.

The paramedics asked him questions, lots of questions, and it hit Klaus how little he really knew his brother. Before this week they hadn’t seen each other for over a decade, did he really even know where he lived? Allergies? He had a stutter, that’s about the extent of his knowledge of his brother's health.

The ambulance ride was different then Klaus was used to, and he didn’t like it. When it was him that was flat-lining in front strangers due to his own self-destructive ways, that was fine, but Diego? Looking about as helpless as one could look, hooked up to machines that were beeping too loud, that was not fine.

One of the paramedics pulled out a small handheld contraption and pressed it to Diego’s finger. Klaus leaned forward in his seat to see what they were doing, his eyes were lost on all the equipment.

“His BGL is 530, possible DKA.”

“What, what does that mean? Is he going to be alright?” the knot in his stomach pulling tighter.

“The Doctor will have to make an official diagnosis, but it seems your brother has gone into Diabetic Ketoacidosis or DKA. From untreated Diabetes.”

“Diabetes. Like, the sugar diabetes? Well, never mind about that now. Will he be okay?”

“Given the proper treatment, he should recover in no time.”

Klaus sunk back into his seat at the words. Diego was going to be okay. It was strange to see his brother so still, as a kid, he had always been moving. Always playing with his knives or practicing flips, he was in a constant state of motion, but now his knife-wielding hand hung limply off of the stretcher.

Klaus leaned over and squeezed his still unconscious brother's hand reassuringly. “I’m here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First fic on here, still getting used to the layout. I will definitely be adding more chapter so looking forward to that, I hope to update regularly, but life happens.


	2. I'm Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego gets a diagnosis and plans to leave the hospital against medical (and Klaus's) advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a...very informative chapter. I don't know how entertaining this one will be, there's a lot of Diabetes explanation and whatnot. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

The machines gave out consistent beeps which Klaus took as a good sign. It was 3AM in the hospital and Diego was still out. Nurses would come a take his blood and check his vitals on the hour. Klaus stood over Diego, Ben at his shoulder and phone in hand.

“You should call the others,” Ben insisted. Klaus gave him a look.

“Luther and Five are doing God knows what and Allison is trying to fix things with Vanya. Besides. I don’t know any of their numbers. We haven't exactly been in touch.” Klaus said in a harsh whisper, he didn’t want to disturb Diego or alarm any medical staff that he was talking with his dead brother.

“You can make an effort,”

Klaus shrugged his shoulders, “Let’s just get through the night.” Ben disappeared from view as Klaus readjusted himself in his chair. This was going to be a long night.

 

Diego let out a shuddered breath as he groggily lifted his eyes, the bright strain of hospital luminescent beat down on him. After blinking profusely to become accosted he noticed another figure in the room with him.

“Hey,” Diego said, his own voice foreign to him.

Klaus jumped up in surprise, his nose in a book.

Diego let out a small smile. “My brother Klaus. Voluntarily in a hospital. And reading a book? Who are you?”

Klaus looked from his reading material to his brother, not finding the right thing to say, he landed on comical.

“I would say the same, but ‘I’m Fine’ Diego Hargreeves ending up in the hospital seems pretty par,” Klaus moved from his cross-legged position on the chair to stand by Diego’s bedside. As he got closer Diego could see just how bad he looked.

“Hey, did you get any sleep?”

“Sleep? What’s that? No, you're the one that’s hospitalized. Worry about you for a second there bro,” Klaus replied with his usual deflection.

“Yeah about that, what happened?” Diego tried to remember something from the previous night, but it was hazy. He looked down at himself hospital gown on, IVs in both arms, machines beeping rhythmically. Had he been shot? That’s mostly the reason he ends up here, but he didn’t feel like he’d been shot.

“D-K-A,” Klaus said emphasizing out each letter.

Diego's brow furrowed. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll let the Doctor explain. They should be coming round soon anyway,” Klaus said peeking out the door into the bustling hallway.

Diego closed his eyes and sighed. He was feeling a bit better. The headache was definitely still there, but he wasn’t as thirsty. His mouth wasn’t as dry as before. A good night of rest really helped. Whatever sickness he caught he was glad it was over now.

Diego opened his eyes at the sound of a knock on the door, a tall man with white hair stepped into his view.

“Nice to see you awake Mr. Hargreeves,” he said as he took a spot next to Diego.

Putting out his hand he introduced himself. “Dr. Kordinski, Endocrinologist,”

Diego shook his hand and gave a polite smile. “Doctor,”

Klaus moved to the corner of the room, he wanted to give Diego privacy but also didn’t want to let him out of his site. Klaus was sick of losing people, he wasn’t going to do it anymore. Klaus and Ben shared a look as the impending conversation came with Diego.

“You have been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. In the ambulance, your blood sugar levels were checked and you were dangerously out of range. We have been administering insulin as well as fluids through your IV and I am confident that you will make a full recovery.” the Doctor looked at Diego who was understandably taken aback.

“W-w-wh-what do you mean? Diabetes? I, I eat healthy. I exercise all the time, I don’t understand,” Diego tried his best to control his emotions, be the stoic hero he portrayed, but his inner fear was out for all to see.

“That is why you have been diagnosed with Type 1. Your body is no longer producing any insulin. Without insulin, your cells can’t get energy and things start to shut down, which,” the Doctor gestured at his body, “is why you are in here today. You could be the healthiest person in the world but that won't make your pancreas make more insulin. Now typically Diabetes runs in the family, do you know if any of your relatives had it?” 

Diego shook his head, unable to process everything he was being told.  
“I, I was adopted,” was all he gave before looking to Klaus for help.

His brother just gave him an it’ll-be-ok nod before turning whisper something to his left. He was always mumbling something.

“Following protocol we’ll want to keep you here overnight again, to train you and we’ll run a couple more tests.”

Diego nodded at this, unable to voice what he thought.

“I’ll send in a nurse to take your blood and show you how to use the shots,”

Shots.

With needles.

Diego’s stomach dropped at the thought of having to give himself a shot, normally he would like to believe that nothing could get to him. And normally, the thought of needles didn’t freak him out, but the sight, the actual action, and now the thought of administering it to himself? Diego gulped and nodded as the Doctor let himself out.

Diego had to get his mind off needles.

“My suit,” he said.

Klaus looked at Diego quizzingly, “Your suit?”

“Where is my suit. I know it isn’t under this, so where is it?”

“It’s safe don’t worry.” Klaus removed himself from the corner of the room to stand closer to Diego again. “Now, speaking as the master of deflection, I know that’s not what you're worried about.”

Diego looked down, “Yeah you know, Hazel and Cha Cha they’re still out there and-”

“Nuh uh,” Klaus said wagging a finger at his brother.

“Diego you just got a life-changing diagnosis. You can't just ignore it,”

“I know, it’s just-” Diego stopped mid-sentence as a nurse entered his room pushing a cart. She smiled and explained what she was doing. He swallowed as she drew his blood, he didn’t mind blood, he was covered in his own more often than not, but the thought of a small tube in him draining was enough to make him feel nauseous again.

“Now normally you want to take insulin before meals, but we’re going to have you fast for a while until you get closer into range. Let's practice giving a shot.” the nurse pulled out an orange and handed it to him.

After showing him how to draw up insulin in the syringe, although they were just using saline, he administered it into the orange.

“You can do shots in your stomach, legs, arms, and backside.” said the nurse gesturing to the places.

Diego didn’t respond, just more nodding. He needed to get out of here. As soon as the nurse left he sat up in his bed, surveying the room.

“Diego, what, what are you doing?” Klaus asked nervously as Diego started fiddling with his tubing.

“I can’t stay here,”

Klaus put a hand on Diego’s shoulder. “Come on Diego, for once in your life, listen to me. This is serious.”

“I can handle it on my own, I don’t need the whole godforsaken hospital telling me what to do.”

Klaus just rolled his eyes and took a step back. He didn’t know how to proceed. Klaus was always the funny one. He knew how to be the funny one, but here? Comforting his brother? He wasn’t used to this. It’s always been him. Take care of himself. He didn’t know what to say, what to do, so he ended up just hovering in place.

 

“It’s not your fault you know,” he said eventually.

Diego looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“Diabetes. You didn’t cause it. I’ve been doing some, light, reading and it’s not your fault.” Klaus tossed the book he had been reading to Diego, he glanced up and down examining the medial informative book. Diego flipped through the chapters his eyes landing on random words like glucagon and hypoglycemia, flashes of high school biology rang in his mind. He snapped the book shut, he wasn’t ready for all this.

 

Klaus wasn’t ready to give up on talking to his brother. “You’re one in 40,000.”

“What are you saying now?” Diego said with a sigh.

“40,000. That’s how many people are diagnosed with Type 1 in the US each year.”

Before Diego had to think of something to say to his brother the nurse returned, “Let’s check your blood sugar level,” she said handing him a box.

He opened it to find a black zippered pouch.

“You’ll keep this with you at all times, you’ll need to be able to check your levels any time of the day.”

Diego shook his head and unzipped the bag. Inside was a few little machines and a bottle.

The nurse showed him a test strip and how to insert it into the machine. Then it was time for the blood. Diego kept a straight face, no drop of blood would get the better of him. The lancing device snapped as it pricked his fingers. He put the drop of blood on the strip and the machine, which he learned was called a meter, showed him a loading screen. The meter read his number, 314.

“Is that bad?” Klaus was leaning over the nurse's shoulder to see.

“Well, it’s on the higher side but it’s definitely a good sign. Once it drops below 250 we can stop the IV insulin therapy and move to shots.”

Diego grunted in response to this. But it was a good sign. If he could get off the IV soon then he could leave and not even Klaus could stop him.

“What is a good number?”

“100. Well, a range from 80-120, but the ideal is 100,” she said with a relaxed smile. “This brings up a good topic. Have you heard about Hypoglycemia?” She took his silence for no. “It’s when your blood glucose level is below 70. When your number is ‘low’ that means that there isn’t enough sugar in your bloodstream. Hypoglycemia needs to be treated immediately. If you get a low number you can treat it with juice or glucose tablets, or any other fast acting carb like it. Then, check in 15 minutes to make sure you came up. Are you tracking?”

Diego nodded. He was understanding just not believing that it was actually happening. The apocalypse was coming, his family was in danger and his...Eudora was gone. Yet, here he was. Getting a crash course in Diabetes.

Diabetes.

It had a bad connotation in Diego’s mind. The only diabetic he’d known had been his 60-year-old, overweight, neighbor. But, he guessed that he really didn't know much about it at all.

“Don’t worry, I know it’s a lot. You’ll have plenty of time to learn everything over the next couple of days here.”

“Couple of days?!” Diego snapped, his voice harsher than intended.

The nurse looked between Diego and Klaus before replying. “We cannot discharge you until we’re confident that you can handle it on your own. This is a learning curve. Give yourself time to learn and recover, or you’ll end up here again next week.” With that, the nurse exited.

“You heard the lady! You need to stay,” Klaus said with an I-told-you-so smirk.

“Shut up,”

“You gotta take care of yourself, Diego.” Klaus sighed.

“Klaus. The world is ending. Pretty soon it won't matter how long I stayed at the hospital. Unless I do something now, I’ll be dead next week anyway.”

Klaus closed the distance between them and put his pointer finger on Diego's chest. “And what good are you dead?” the anger behind Klaus’ eyes came from a deep place of protectiveness.

Klaus told himself that he could drink himself to death. He could OD. He could overall just give up on life, but not Diego. Not Diego.

“If you think ignoring this is helping others you’re even more delusional than Luther thinking he pull off a turtleneck. Diego, pretending your life hasn’t just been thrown upside down is not helping you. And refusing to take care of yourself is selfish! You can’t do that to us.”

Diego glared at his brother but didn’t say anything. He knew Klaus was right. But his knuckle-headed brother wouldn’t get the satisfaction of hearing him ever admit it.

“What’s the point of staying in the hospital? None of this will be here soon enough!”

“The point is you are here now, you’re in trouble now. Screw the world, Diego! You don’t have to save anyone but yourself.”  
Klaus took a step back and examined his brother. “Are you with me?”

“Fine. I’ll stay, for a bit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this is kind of accurate, I am mostly pulling from when I went into DKA, but I was 12 back then and Diego and I have sorely different personalities, so very different in that aspect... Anyway, the next chapter will pick up the pace a bit more!


End file.
